《How to Write Stories People Will Love》3. Find Inspiration
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If you're ever stumped for ideas on what to write, there are two things I recommend.
A story that I recently finished was inspired by a random thought I had while walking the dogs. They were sniffing intently at a bush, and I thought to myself, "I wonder what it's like to smell things as well as they do?" My brain then followed that rabbit down a hole and a story began forming. (Incidentally, this story is now on Wattpad! Look for My Mother Runs With Wolves on my profile. Website users can click on the External Link.)
Encourage your brain to think random thoughts. In any direction.
What would it be like to live on the moon? How high could you jump?
Do alligators really survive in the sewer? What do they live on?
How much time did Richard Adams spend staring at rabbits when he wrote Watership Down? Did his friends think he was crazy?
If teleporters ever get invented, I wonder if it'll get sabotaged by the airline and automobile industries?
Encouraging your mind to wander to pointless places sometimes sparks an idea for a story. My brain is always doing this on its own (I occasionally document these random thoughts in "My Hamster Wheel Brain" blog) and I'm often accused of spacing out. Some of these random thoughts give me ideas, and I'll scribble these ideas into a file for later reference.
Wandering thoughts usually aren't enough to come up with a story plot. The way you flesh out an idea is by asking what ifs. I'll take my previous wandering examples and apply what ifs to them...
What if they started colonizing the moon, and I volunteered? Would any of my friends and family go with me? What if I was in a relationship? What would happen to that?
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What if these sewer alligators were actually robots created by a corporation to build something secret underground?
What if Richard Adams made his story about cats instead of rabbits? What might have changed?
What if teleporters do get invented, but big-money lobbies get laws to be passed that make them illegal? What if a small group of scientists keeps working on one anyway, what would they do with it? Would a black market teleportation industry spring up?
Now these wandering thoughts have more meat on them, more potential to turn into stories.
If your brain doesn't wander like mine does, there are other ways. The What If Game can be powerful. Take an existing fairy tale. Then what-if the heck out of it. Here's an example: Peter Pan.
What if Peter Pan was actually a girl? She could be Petra Pan. With Lost Girls instead of Lost Boys.
What if this was set in space? Maybe Peter Pan used a jet pack instead of fairy dust. Would Tinkerbell be an alien?
What if Captain Hook was Peter's father?
What if Peter Pan was like Mad Max, and the Lost Boys ran Thunderdome?
What if Peter somehow got old? (This has already been done, in that Robin Williams movie, Hook.)
What if Tinkerbell was big and ugly like a troll, instead of tiny, fluttery and cute?
As you can see, there are countless directions you can go in! Some of them may have been done already, but there are so many possibilities, that chances are good you'll find something original.
Maintain a file or notebook for all your ideas. No matter how dumb or tiny the idea might seem, write it down. You don't have to flesh it out. Just record what you have. Twice now, I've thought of nothing but a title. No clue what the plot was, or who the characters might be. Just a story title I thought was cool. I wrote them down and set it aside for several months.
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Then later, as I recorded other ideas, I would peruse my previous ideas just for fun. Often these previous ideas will stir something in my creative space, and something will take root. Months later, I now have a complete short story, called "Sell Fish", and an in-progress novel from those two disembodied story titles I once wrote down.
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Daddy Is The Big Boss
No one would expect that the cruel and ruthless Xiao Daiyu had once longed for a loving family. After transmigrating into the only novel she ever read, Xiao Daiyu found herself with one. She was willing to do anything, even acting shamelessly cute, as long as she wasn’t thrown away by the big boss of the novel.
8 1017The Shores of Dusk
A forgotten Realms Fan Fiction. This is the classic tournament-style story, with over a dozen diverse fighters vying for the top spot. The battle to the death is hosted by the most powerful mage in the realms who has unlocked the secret of immortality and gives eternal life to the winner. Drizzt and Entreri are in attendance and soon realize there are demons, mages, and other powerful beings using this event for their own personal gain. Desperate to not become pawns in this power play, they must work together and form alliances with the other fighters to survive. This story has no ties to any of my other Fan Fiction stories.
8 110Worlds: The Beginning!
A long time ago there existed only a single continent, the divine continent. And it was split into three great civilisations: the human civilisation, the tyrannical beast civilisation and the magical beast civilisation. These three great civilisations were ruled by emperors that were so powerful that they could kill anyone that they wished but each other with but just a single thought while being billions of kilometres away.But that was all in the past as now there is more than just one continent. Now there is no longer a civilisation that would dare call itself great. Now there is no human, tyrannical beast or magical beast alive that could kill anyone that they wished with just a single thought by being billions of kilometres away.But that could all change in the future.
8 182Full Sun || Haechan
Your average cliche high school story~-Haechan X Reader
8 198The modern day plague doctor
The world has become an rpg. Monsters have decended and destroyed the world. A year after the end survivors have come together and formed their own nations and kingdoms around the globe. Finding peace and comfort after so long. But when someone becomes sick and healing magic won't work they use medicine. But what do you do when you run out of medicine. The next choice would be a doctor. But with new species comes new diseases and only one man can help you then. A man with a plague doctor mask carrying a old medicine case.
8 88Her Innocent Love
He is definition of perfectionShe is definition of innocentHe is mature and responsibility She is childish and had a don't care policy He have complete familyShe is orphan He is genius She is averageThey both are totally different and opposite from each other but that doesn't been a barrier for her to fall in love with him. She was in love with him before she meet him while for him she is just a distraction.This is very cute romantic love story of Divya and Arjun.It is unedited version(Start : 14/2/2021)(End : 15/4/2021)
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